


Topography of Laundry

by krysnel_nicavis



Series: the Squib Universe [10]
Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Humor, M/M, Romance, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-15
Updated: 2011-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 13:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/225931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krysnel_nicavis/pseuds/krysnel_nicavis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry contemplates the topographical shift in the Laundry Room Mountain Range.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Topography of Laundry

**Author's Note:**

> Approx. 2 years after “Paramount”.

It has been two years since my divorce from Ginny.  A lot has changed in the past twenty-four months. 

The aftermath of the interview to assess how fit I was to be a parent was difficult.  My apparent neglect of Ginny and my inability to realize that my youngest child was alive and well were damaging.

Ginny voluntarily giving up her parental rights for her squib child was completely acceptable.  It was a common practice in wizarding society and she was deemed fully entitled to do so.  Also she hadn’t disinherited any of our magical children.

In the end it was not in the Child Welfare Office’s practice to award sold custody of children to single fathers.

My claim was denied.

I sigh as I take in the contents of the laundry room in my house.  I note the noticeable absence of the large mounds that once consisted of the colours of my children’s youth.

Strong arms encircle my waist from behind and I lean back into the warm embrace.  I sigh again and the taller person behind me chuckles.

“You know, it’s not _that_ bad, Harry,” the amused American accent sounds in my ear.

I stare at the laundry surrounding me and I beg to differ. “I remember when the laundry consisted of two large piles of red and an equally large pile of pink…”

Adam chuckles again. “I know it’s hard, love, but you’re going to have to face the fact that our children are getting older.” He turns me around to face him. “The older ones are all teenagers now. Their tastes are expected to change.”

I can’t help the sigh that escapes my lips. “I know, _I know_. But I can’t help feeling helpless,” I say despondently.  My husband laughs good naturedly at me and pulls me into another embrace.  When he pulls back I can’t help but grin back at him.  He kisses my soundly on the lips before leaving me to turn back to the piles of clothing filling the floor behind me.

I take note of the erosion of both Mount Red Ridge and Pink Peaks from mountains to mounds.  As well as the rising of the Black Fortress Mountains and Mount Violet along with the rolling Blue Hills and Green Valley – the last of which was split between two piles: Slytherin green and other green.  The washing machine stops and I move the medium sized load of whites to the dryer before levelling the top of one of the Black Fortress Mountains.

The change in my children’s fashion styles happened so gradually that it had startled me to realize just how much black there was in their wardrobes.  However, Adam was right: Lily, Albus, and James were all teenagers now (ages thirteen, fifteen, and sixteen respectively).  Though I’m positive that my husband’s influence is mostly to blame, a notion Adam had laughed at when I confronted him with it.

 _Husband._

There’s a word I never thought I’d use in relation to my spouse.  And yet here we are after two years of marriage.

Despite it being well within Ginny’s rights to disinherit her son the Child Welfare officials found her to be an unfit mother.  It was glaringly obvious – especially after the interviews with the children – that the woman was indeed more concerned with her own social standing than the welfare of her children.

In the wizarding world it was completely unheard of for single fathers to be awarded sole custody of their children in the event of a divorce.  When I was informed of the decision to grant custody of my three older children to my former in-laws – as I had no parents and Molly and Arthur are the children’s grandparents – I became desperate.  As their father I was given three days to reconsider my petition to strip my ex-wife of her rights as their mother.

It had taken me the better part of a day to locate the only person I believed could truly help me.  To say that I was nervous standing in the hallway of a hotel in Austria was an understatement.  All of my hopes lay on what wait for me on the other side of the door.

It had opened to reveal the sight of the half-naked rock star that had been the subject of more than a few fantasies of mine.  Not that I would admit that at the time.  Adam froze the second he realized it was me.  He looked just as scared as I felt.  I practically begged for him to let me in and hear me out.  I must have looked pathetic for him to allow me in so quickly.  I remember tears building in my eyes as I saw my son on the other side of the room, a little yellow guitar in his lap as he tried his best to play it.  To be fair he was doing quite well for a two-year-old.  Adam allowed me to put up a one-way silencing ward so Mitchel wouldn’t hear what we were talking about as we sat nearby.

The first thing I had to do was assure Adam that I wasn’t trying to take Mitchel from him – the little boy _was_ the man’s son after all, nothing would change that.  He listened as I spilled my heart out to him.  When I reached the end of my tale he even sat next to me and held me in his arms as I finally allowed myself to break down.

When I whispered “I can’t lose my children” he’d replied with “you don’t have to”.  Despite hoping this would happen it scared me just as much as the thought of him refusing me.  It had actually taken some convincing to get _me_ to ultimately agree.  I was legally divorced and he was unmarried.  It wasn’t unheard of for same-sex marriages in the wizarding world, despite how backwards they were about nearly everything else.

Adam had the next day off so we arranged for Adam’s band mates to baby-sit Mitchel and I apparated us back to England in the morning.  By lunchtime I was officially married for the second time, we were wearing matching wedding bands, and a new petition had been filed.  This one requesting that custody of my older children be transferred from my ex-wife to my new husband.

It surprised me how quickly it was approved, even with us being married.  Apparently the fact that we already shared custody of Mitchel helped fast track the transfer.  Ginny was furious enough that her paternal rights had been stripped in the first place.  The fact that those rights were then given to her squib brother had added insult to injury.  One and a half months later she’d ended up in prison for six months for attacking a muggle in a muggle populated area.  She had accompanied her parents to pick up her sibling’s children for Christmas break and upon seeing Adam with me threw a fit and tried to curse him.  Sadly, for her, another wizarding parent nearby was also an Auror.  She’d apprehended Ginny and side-apparated the furious red-head to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry.  Mitchel, who had been in Adam’s arms at the time, luckily remained completely unharmed and unshaken by the incident.  The little boy, who’d witnessed me performing magic, clearly didn’t realize the acid blue jet of light was a threat.

The Obliviation Squad had to be dispersed as so many muggles had witnessed her casting the curse and they needed their memories altered.  Adam being a celebrity in the muggle world didn’t help matters.  Seeing Adam Lambert in person made it impossible to completely remove the memories from the muggle minds – mind spells affect muggle brains differently than their wizarding counterparts and make it difficult to obliviate minds that don’t have magic running through them.  They _had_ been able to convince the surrounding muggles that Ginny had aimed a laser pointer at the musician.

The dryer buzzer going off disrupts my reminiscing.  I take out the load of whites and transfer the first load of blacks into the dryer before putting another load of blacks in the washer.  I sigh dramatically before folding the whites and thinking back to that first Christmas break again.

After hearing Mitchel call me Papa my older children decided to follow suit as it was considered no longer cool to call their father “Daddy” – except for Albus who had taken to calling me “Pops” after reading something on the internet when Adam had taught the three of them how to use the computer – however it _was_ considered cool to refer to Adam as such.  When I’d complained they merely informed me that calling the glam rocker “Daddy” was not only funny but apparently “won’t damage their reps because he’s a rock star, and that’s cool”.

I’ve finished folding the whites and am on my way to redistribute the clothing to their proper owners when I come across the whole reason I am remembering how the last two years began: my eldest son.

Sixteen-year-old James Sirius Potter (the second) is currently lacing up a pair of black boots that come up to just below his knees.  His dyed black hair is streaked in blue and he is dressed in one of Adam’s old tour outfits – _it isn’t even Halloween!_   His pale skin has been artificially darkened a bit to give him a “healthy glow” (thanks to a spray-on tanning session his step-father arranged as a birthday present).  But the thing that gets me the most is the fact that his face has been completely covered in make-up to “hide his freckles”.  The most startling part is the blue eye shadow.  Apparently it brought out the blue in his eyes.

I sigh again and go about putting the whites in the right rooms – most of it belongs to Adam and me.  I sit on the bed I share with my husband and sigh once more before falling backward into a lying position.

“Papa, why do you go _‘ohh’_ so much when you do laundry?” four-year-old Mitchel asks me as he climbs onto the bed next to me.  I chuckle as he imitates my sighing. “You always do.” He takes a seat next to me.

“Because the clothes your brothers and sister wear make me feel old,” I reply.

Mitchel tilts his head and looks down at me. “But you are old.”

I scoff.  So much for sympathy.  A laugh from the doorway catches both our attentions. “Baby, you’re really not supposed to point that kind of thing out to people,” Adam grins and moves to lie beside me.  I snuggle into his side as he pulls me into his arms.

“But it’s true,” Mitchel argues. “You always say I have to tell the truth.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to _say_ it,” Adam tries to explain.

“So I should lie?”

“No, no, no,” Adam chuckles. “I mean you shouldn’t say _anything_.”

“Why?”

“Mitchel, honey, it’s not nice to tell people they’re old,” I try to help.

“Why?”

“Because…”

“Because it hurts people’s feelings,” Adam finishes.

“Why?”

I shut my eyes and groan a bit. “Why don’t you go see what your sister is doing?”

“Lily’s watching TV. That’s how come I came to find you,” Mitchel replies.

“What about your brothers?” Adam asks.

“Jamie’s going out with his boyfriend and Al’s playing his X-Box.”

“Say what now?” I lift up onto my side to look at my youngest son. “Jamie’s going out with _who?_ ”

“Er… I wasn’t supposed to tell,” Mitchel blushes.

Adam sits up behind me. “Tell what?”

“Umm… I just remembered I have to go do something,” he says quickly and tries to make a break for it.

“Oh no you don’t,” I say with a smile as I grab hold of him and pull him between Adam and I. “Now start talking.”

“About what?” Mitchel asks innocently.

“You know what little mister,” Adam grins down at the boy.

Mitchel shrugs. “Jamie and Simon play hockey.”

“Hockey?” I raise an eyebrow.  If there was one thing I was completely sure about Jamie it was that the sixteen-year-old Gryffindor just didn’t do sports – even quidditch.  Albus on the other hand was both a chaser and captain of the Slytherin team.  Even Lily played chaser for Hufflepuff.

“Yeah,” Mitchel nods. “Two-sill hockey.”

“Two-sill hockey?” Adam asks sceptically.

“Yeah,” Mitchel grins. “Like Daddy and Uncle Cheeks.”

“What?” Both Adam and I look at each other shocked and confused.

“Like in those pictures on the inner-net.” I frown and Adam gets a far-away look in his eyes.  Then Adam’s eyes widen dramatically and his mouth forms an “o” shape.

“You mean _tonsil_ hockey,” he chuckles as he looks back down at our son.

“Yeah that,” Mitchel nods again.  I think for a moment before chuckling myself.  I remember the photos Mitchel is talking about – the ones of Adam kissing Brad Bell, one of his exes-turned-best-friends.  Before the discussion could continue I hear the dryer buzzer go off again.

“So, Jamie and Simon,” Adam says as I fold the first load of blacks – the third load currently in the washer.  Simon Bae was an interesting boy. (1)  He’s a blonde Asian boy and, while not a wizard, there is something different about him that piques my interest, and apparently my eldest son’s though in a different way from my own.

“Can’t say that doesn’t surprise me,” I admit as I turn and lean against the counter, Adam stopping in front of me.

“Even I didn’t see that one coming,” he admits, wrapping his arms around my waist.  I smile softly up at him, feeling a blush creep into my cheeks.  It’s odd to believe how our relationship developed.  It started only as a way for me to keep my children.  While we were both undeniably attracted to each other there was no love in the beginning.  We didn’t know each other well enough to allow that.  But over the past two years we’ve gotten to know and appreciate one another.  It was shortly after our first anniversary that I realized I had undeniably fallen completely in love with my husband.  And, even better, he had fallen equally in love with me.

I look into his clear blue eyes, which are coloured slightly grey from time to time (usually when he’s feeling strongly about something which I believe results from the magical residue in his bloodline), and think of the journey we’ve been on together for the past two years.  While I could have done with a better start I am happy with what it came to be.  My heart quickens to see the emotions displayed so clearly in his eyes and mine drift shut as he leans down to-

“Are you going to play tonsil hockey too?”

We turn to see all four of our children standing in the laundry room door.  Albus rolls his eyes, Mitchel has a big smile on his face, Lily is grinning, and James is completely red… at least where the make-up isn’t hiding it.

\- 30 -

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hope you like this one. Explaining their children was fun. This was actually originally going to end at “Apparently it brought out the blue in his eyes” but the rest just begged to be written. Wow, I’ve been trying to write drabbles lately but I just can’t seem to keep it short. Oh well! You probably like the longer ones better!
> 
> Also, it may be possible that the scene near the end with Mitchel sounds like a scene from the Kradam fic “Forever After” by Lambertfanfic on livejournal. I love this series – starts with “Working Through”, then “Forever After” and is being continued in “The Little Things” – if you love Kradam fics (especially Kradam family fics) you have to read these ones. They come highly recommended (I loved WT and thought FA was even better!). As for the scene in this fic, when I re-read it, the way it played out reminded me of a scene in FA: where Adam and Kris are talking with their youngest child. I’m not sure how closely the two scenes mirror each other but I assure you their similarities were unconsciously done. (Lambertfanfic’s stories are quite long, I’m telling you now. I wouldn’t even know where to start in FA to find the scene I’m referring to. But trust me, once you start reading these you won’t want to stop. They are well worth it.)
> 
> Footnotes:
> 
> (1) Simon Bae (I think his last name is Bae, I know his father’s is) – from the Darkest Powers trilogy (the Summoning, the Awakening, the Reckoning) by Kelley Armstrong.


End file.
